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Saga
of the Phoenix |
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Year: |
1990 |
Yuen Biao |
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Director: |
Nam
Lai-Choi |
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Cast: |
Yuen
Biao, Gloria Yip Wan-Yi,
Loletta Lee Lai-Chun |
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The
Skinny: |
Sequel
to the enjoyable Peacock King recycles characters from
the original but gives little else. And, the "cute"
creature thrown in for the kiddies may induce vomiting and/or
rioting. |
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Review
by Kozo: |
The sequel to 1987's Peacock King. Yuen Biao reprises
his role as Peacock, designated guardian from the minions
of Hell. He’s assigned to watch over Ashura (Gloria Yip),
who was the cute-as-a-button daughter of Hell that was prophesied
to bring about Armageddon. The forces of good wish to imprison
her, but she’s such a sweet girl that they give her a week
to play around, with Peacock and brother Lucky Fruit as her
guardians.
Sadly, Hell’s Concubine decides to
stir things up and tries to repeatedly kidnap Ashura. She
fails initially, but freezes Peacock in a block of ice. After
that it’s all downhill. Nevermind that no one seems to care
that Peacock is missing - the film takes a massive turn and
tells the story of Ashura’s new friendship with a wacky inventor
and his free-spirit sister (Loletta Lee). Lucky Fruit hangs
around, which leads to the blossoming of a romance with the
sister.
As if that weren’t wacky enough,
the filmmakers go the Ewok route and introduce Genie, a flatulent
muppet that attempts to steal the show but only succeeds in
annoying the piss out of anyone watching. The antics are unbearable,
but eventually they take a turn for the worse when Hell’s
Concubine possesses Genie and tries to use him against Ashura.
The pain that registers watching the little mutant attempt
cuteness is beyond belief - it’s like watching Salacious Crumb
dance for our amusement. By the time Peacock returns to set
things straight, the damage has been done. Also, Lucky Fruit
is played by a taller, different Japanese actor than in the
original. All told, the film is passable in spurts - if you
cut out the little muppet then the film would improve considerably.
Sadly, it’d also be 25 minutes long. (Kozo
1998) |
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Availability: |
DVD
(Hong Kong)
Region 0 NTSC
Universe Laser
Widescreen
Cantonese and Mandarin Language Tracks
Dolby Digital 5.1
Removable English and Chinese Subtitles |
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image courtesy
of Universe Laser & Video Co., Ltd.
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| LoveHKFilm.com
Copyright ©2002-2008 Ross Chen |
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